Article

French retailer tests the limits of cashless retail with US store

Sporting goods retailer Decathlon is testing the limits of cashless retail with technology firm NewStore, which developed an iPhone-based ominichannel platform to transform the store experience.

May 8, 2019 by David Jones — Editor, Networld Media Group

Amid a growing and controversial trend of cashless retail stores in the U.S., Decathlon, the France-based company that touts itself as the world's largest sporting goods retailer, has opened its first location in the U.S. using an iPhone-based transaction model.

The company, which has more than 1,500 stores in 49 countries, has opened a 47,000 square-foot experiential store in Emeryville, California, following a year-long period during which it operated a retail laboratory in San Francisco exploring consumer preferences in merchandising and checkout and testing using state-of-the-art logistics technologies.

Decathlon worked with Boston-based NewStore, which provided its omnichannel-as-a-service technology, to transform the retail experience for Decathlon customers and offer them a range of sporting goods and athletic apparel purchasing options that provide greater speed, convenience and profitability than many legacy retail methods.

"We want our stores to be a place where people discover new sports and engage with our teammates and products," Ashley Benson, product manager at Decathlon, told Mobile Payments Today via email. "Having a cashless store means no long checkout lines or traditional cash registers."

The superstore has associates working the sales floor with company issued iPhones in hand, according to Casey Antonelli, a spokesperson for NewStore. The stores have 20 mobile checkout stations throughout, but no fixed cash wraps or traditional cash registers.

When customers are ready to check out, they approach a store associate and request to pay for their merchandise. The associate places the customer's physical shopping cart inside an RFID-enabled mobile checkout station, according to Antonelli.

"The associate scans a QR code on the station and it instantly creates a shopping bag in the NewStore Associate app," she said. "The transaction can then be completed within the app using Apple Pay, gift card, credit card or via NewStore checkout."

Antonelli explained that NewStore checkout is a patent-pending technology that allows shoppers to scan a QR code with their iPhone and complete the purchase with Apple Pay. Customers can also use Apple Pay through their Apple watch. No payment terminal or credit card reader is required. The technology is wired into store security systems to make sure that items paid for remotely will not set off store alarms.

The mobile checkout stations will soon have a self-service option that will work with a customer-facing native shopping app, Antonelli said. Decathlon currently does not have its own consumer app, however.

Apple Only

NewStore CEO Stephan Shambach said that his company works only with iPhone, which in his view offers greater security and ease of use than any other option on the market.

"Apple devices are core to the NewStore vision because of the superior user experience and ability to provide powerful, secure transactions," he said in an email.

Consumers do not have to bring their own smartphone to pay in the store. They can pay with credit cards or gift cards, and cash-preferred consumers  can convert their currency to gift cards at one of the kiosks at the front of the store, according to the Antonelli.

NewStore currently is working with approximately a dozen different store brands in the U.S. and EMEA region, however, the company is able to acknowledge only its association with the UntuckiT brand, which was announced in November.

About David Jones

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David Jones is the editor of Mobile Payments Today. He is a veteran business and technology journalist, with three decades of experience writing about business travel, real estate and technology.

Since 2015 he covered a range of technology stories for the ECT News Network, which includes the E-Commerce Times, TechNewsWorld, LinuxInsider and CRM Buyer, writing about cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, machine learning, open source computing and privacy issues among others. He recently covered FinTech issues for PYMNTS.com.

He worked as a staff writer for Bloomberg Business News and an online reporter for Crain’s New York Business. He has written for numerous media organizations, including Reuters, The New York Times, The Real Deal, Continental, City Limits and The Nation. 

He was previously awarded the George Washington Williams Fellowship for Journalists of Color by the Independent Press Association.